Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' French Phrase Book and Dictionary

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After 2 weeks in Paris with this book in hand, all I can say is "what a disappoinment!" I bought this book based on other customer's online reviews, while my husband went to the bookstore, and carefully chose "Lonely Planet" French Phrasebook French: Lonely Planet Phrasebook. The difference was not subtle. The Lonely Planet version is beautifully color coded, for easy navigation, while Mr. Steve's book is simple black and white. Lonely Planet is a tiny bit thicker, but is overall smaller in size (nice for your pocket).

Mr. Steve's provides a small dictionary, lost somewhere in the middle of the book, with no indication of gender, and no assistance whatsoever with pronuncation of said words. The dictionary portion of this book alone, made the guide a complete waste in my estimation.

In addition, if I needed to find a word such as "expensive", it was not in the dictionary portion of the book at all. I assume this is because it was listed in the phrase section under "Le Yin et le Yang". By the time you figure out what section a word might be in, the tour bus has loaded, and departed for it's next destination!

Lonely Planet, and Rick Steve's book are the same price. Don't waste your money on this one!

btw: No, I don't work for Lonely Planet!

I haven't spoken French since high school, & I'm planning my first trip to Europe (including Paris). This book is really helping me remember all the tricky parts of the language, but it doesn't bog me down with the grammar that my old French teacher tried to drill into my head! This book has the important stuff, like ordering in a restaurant. It's small enough to fit in my pocket, so I know I'll use it a lot.

My husband and I are going to Paris for the first time next week. I just got the book yesterday and it is by far the most user friendly translation book. I have never taken a French class in my life and by this book breaking down phrases with simple English phonics makes all the difference. My husband and I are both fluent in Spanish and I can defend myself in Italian, but French was Greek to me. Thank you Rick Steves, now I can go to Paris with the confidence that I won't massacre the French language.

I had two phrase books during my recent two-week visit to France and found that I really only used this one (and the Marling Menu Master). Common situations are covered extremely well and are easy to locate in the book. For example, if I needed to ask if a train was direct or was leaving from a certain track, the book easily allowed me to figure out how to say it. One night, I got locked out of a hotel (they locked the doors before 10!) and I was able to use the book to explain my predicament over the phone. The size is perfect too as it fit in the back pocket of my slacks. Rick Steve's books are great and this one is no exception.

Sadly, this book is not up to the standard of Rick Steves' guidebooks. What a shame! Mr. Steves has a really good sense of what information is needed by travelers to ease and enhance their trip. But HIS PHRASEBOOK is a big disappointment. It is FULL of errors! On average, I would say there is nearly one mistake per page. Some are just misspellings, but others are more serious - faulty pronunciations, bad grammar, and even wrong words. For example, in the section "A French Romance" on p. 199, "baiser" is given as the translation of "to kiss". Non, non, et non! Except in the fixed expression "baiser la main" (to kiss one's hand), "baiser" IS NOT USED with this meaning! It's a vulgar word for "copulate", equivalent to our "to screw/lay/f__k". If you want to say "to kiss" in French, you use the word "embrasser". Oh là là, quelle erreur! One can only imagine the repercussions if one used this word when asking permission to kiss someone good-night...

And it struck me, if there are that many errors in the French I know - Lord only knows what's lurking there in the expressions I don't know! I have seen enough to convince me that the French in this book is not to be trusted.

In addition, Mr. Steves doesn't see fit to let the reader know whether words (nouns) are masculine or feminine, not even in the dictionary section. And 9 times out of 10, he doesn't indicate what the masculine and feminine forms are to accompany these words. So how can one hope to do anything other than butcher the French language with this book?

It's true that you can probably make yourself understood with Mr. Steves' phrasebook, even with all the mistakes. But that's putting the bar pretty low, isn't it? When you buy a phrasebook, don't you expect something a bit better than the equivalent of "I go now, and he go, too"? If you're new to French, you'll probably make enough bloopers on your own, without an additional helping from Mr. Steves. Get yourself a phrasebook that gives you accurate French, such as Berlitz, or Fodors (sorry, I'm not familiar with the Lonely Planet phrasebook).

I am saddened to think that neither Mr. Steves nor his publisher thought it necessary to have this phrasebook/dictionary proofread or vetted by a French person. It appears from the mistakes Mr. Steves makes that he has picked up the language by traveling and talking to people but has not undertaken any systematic study of the language. How could anyone who has had even one semester of college French say the equivalent of "I have already to finish" when they mean to say "I have already finished."? Surely then it is irresponsible, if not downright arrogant, to assume that Mr. Steves' command of French is good enough to be used as a model for others to copy. Oh, là là! Quelle horreur! Quelle triste histoire! All the potential usefulness of this book has been thrown away through its slap-happy approach to grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.

Great book! Highly recommended. Easy to use, easy to find the topics you need when you need them. The phonetic words are easy to understand, and are spot on with the real corresponding word (with some other phrase books I have tried, the phonetics were not quite right). There are phrases for real situations, even some funny situations, covering everything from being pulled over by police in your rental car to dealing with pushy street venders (which are abundant in Paris! - which came in handy for us when at the Louvre!). There is a menu and food decoder which we referred to quite a bit so as to know what we were ordering to eat. With this book, we were able to communicate easily everywhere we went: the metro, the train station, eateries, museums, grocery store, and even in the countryside where hardly anyone speaks English.

My Spouse and I were in France last month and I had purchased this book weeks ahead of time and began reviewing the phrases inside. By the time we got to France, we both had learned enough to communicate nicely with the people. In Paris, there are a great many people that speak English, or at least understand it a bit, but it's still nice to be able to say something to them in French even if it's just a greeting. But we stayed in the countryside where English is rare, but we got on just fine at the grocery store, the villages, and the cafes with this little book in hand. The easy to use words and phrases are great in a pinch, but as a helpful tip: Don't just buy the book and wait to use it until your there standing at a ticket booth trying to figure what to say - familiarize yourself with the key phrases that are important to you, and where they are located in the book before you even get on the plane.

I don't give negative reviews on items I've purchased very often, but here goes.

When we bought this book, along with one for Italian, we thought they were great and very user friendly. This was before we actually arrived in France and Italy and really had to use them. When you're in actual situations where you need to find words and phrases fast, this book doesn't cut it, at all. The simplest of words I tried to find in the dictionary weren't there so I quickly went searching through the various sections trying desperately to find necessary words for the simplest of things like directions, traveling, etc. Amazingly, even though these phrases are the most important to use, the ones we needed, the words actually being used at the train and subway stations, weren't to be found. It was a waste.

I finally started using Google translator to put in the phrases I needed, and wrote them down. These worked much better than this book and we were able to do much more. Plus, I didn't have to spend time trying to find the right section, and the right spot where a certain phrase might, or might not, be found.

The book might be useful before you leave, to start to learn pronunciation, etc., but you could probably borrow a book from the library and learn the same thing. Save your money and go to the library, then use Google translator for phrases you'll really need for subways, trains, restaurants, etc.

I just returned from my first trip to France, and found this phrasebook very helpful. The sections were well thought out, and pronunciation guides allowed me to be understood, at least most of the time. Also useful in this guide were tips on how to negotiate French culture. I would have found a small English-French dictionary a good addition, for words not covered in this fairly basic book. However, I was able to shop, talk with hotel staff, dine and even get my eyeglassses fixed using this guide. I would definitely recommend it for those with litle or no
French language skills.

this little book is nicely layed out. Has everything a foreign traveler needs to speak conversational French. Nice and small for the pocket, yet packed with easy-to-find phrases and translations.

Had three semesters of French in college. Grew up in the midwest, where an A sound like A, and a U sound like U. Didn't retain much, but can recover and survive with the help of this book. It is one of the most accurate in providing correct phonetic interpretations of how words and phrases SHOULD sound in French. Many of the other books do not! Don't leave for France without it!!!